บท 219: A Moonlit Meeting [3]
[James's Pov]
"Get your ass down here James and let me punch you!"
'Ah, fuck... How is it that she always finds me? Is she the actual protagonist or something?'
At this point, I had legitimately started to believe that she was the real hero of this world. From the fact that she always seemed to power up when needed to the fact that she was always in the right location, all of these made it seem like she was more of a hero than Arthur.
'But if she is the hero, would that make me the bad guy? Scratch that, I'm absolutely the bad guy here...'
Although I never planned on killing Sebastian, even if I would absolutely let him die in the future if Arthur didn't sign the contract, it wasn't hard to know how they viewed me right now.
Right now I was the villain who was doing shady stuff, who had plans that they couldn't understand but knew weren't anything good. Which was, at least partly, correct.
Even if I had convinced myself to find other ways of dealing with this world, there was no doubt it would hurt the humans more than if I tried to just purely help them against the demons. But that would mean I accepted the demons as the antagonists of the story completely.
And that wasn't the truth of this world.
Looking down at the huge, pink-haired woman who had come to save her lover, I felt a headache emerge.
'This wasn't how it was supposed to go...'
Needless interference, that was what it was. In the end, I didn't have any plans of hurting her little boy-toy. No, the opposite really. My plan had always been to make sure he was strong enough to survive, although not strong enough to win the war.
"Are you listening to me, James?! I said, come down here!"
This time, Sophie didn't break down in tears at all. Which wasn't all too weird, to be honest. She was merely incredibly pissed off that I had toyed with her belonging. Still, that didn't mean I was too keen on getting beat up.
'I don't have enough mana for that trick again, though... I don't think ordinary mana pressure will work too well...'
One of the tricks I had been working on was to utilize small fragments of mist in the air to reinforce the inherent pressure I could exude. Even if it was a pretty useless trick if one caught me in the act, it was very useful to pretend to be stronger than I was.
With Sophie, however, I was pretty sure it wouldn't work. She would just go forward like the brute she was anyway.
Also, because I had to use the other technique I had been working on twice, my mana wasn't looking good at all.
That technique was to turn into mist and instantly use another patch of mist to appear at another location. Thankfully I had already planted my mist around the whole hill here, meaning it wasn't hard to avoid Sophie's attack or save the fool from his own spear.
It was a pretty horrible technique to use as I had to experience the feeling of dismantling myself, but it was incredibly effective. All thanks to the fact that I didn't have a physical body.
'Thinking about it... Could I really call myself a human at this point? Aren't I just a conglomeration of energy with an ego?'
Sadly, I didn't get any more time to think about it as the draconic woman's patience had run out.
"If you won't come down, I'll come up!"
*BAM!*
The ground underneath her feet shattered as she jumped towards me, her flaming fist ready to completely demolish me. As her fist shone underneath the moon, I quickly allowed my wings to emerge and soared up into the air.
*BOOM!*
The tree I had been standing on disappeared, unable to bear the weight of her punch. At the same time, while landing on the ground again, I got to see her, now, very red eyes staring at me.
In the end, I felt like I had no choice but to try and calm her down a bit.
So, slowly, I let my body sink to the ground, with my hands in the air to show I wasn't feeling like fighting.
"Please stop, Sophie. Throwing your fists around like that won't help."
"Then what am I supposed to do?! You won't listen to my words, so isn't this all I have left to try?!"
Seeing the exasperated woman tighten her fists, I once again felt a bit guilty.
'She still hasn't given up, has she?'
Just like when we were surrounded by snowy mountains in Kurat, she still hadn't learned that she had to let go. And even though I knew it was foolish, it still felt quite good to me. The fact that there was at least one person who hadn't given up on me.
"Sophie, please let me expl...."
Even with the hero trying to calm her down by putting his hand on her shoulder, she just slapped it away.
"Shut up, Arthur! Just shut your mouth until I'm done here!"
*Tap*
Finally landing on the ground, I looked up at the woman who was now even bigger than I remembered. Excluded from Zero's point of view.
"Guh!"
Suddenly, a wave of emotions crashed against my mind, as if Zero was somehow able to emerge while I was in this form. Holding my head with my hands, I had no choice but to bend as I felt this disgusting sensation of emotions.
Happiness, sadness, guilt, and loneliness... Everything came at me at once, surely intent on swallowing me whole.
"James?!"
The worst part was that as soon as that happened, the pink-haired woman's face changed from hatred to worry in an instant. As if she now completely forgot that she was about to punch me in my face.
"Aaargh!"
'FUCK! GET THE FUCK OUT, ZERO! YOU DON'T BELONG HERE!'
No matter how desperately I wanted to push away these feelings again, it was as if Zero was standing behind me, continually showering me with useless emotions.
Following this, Sophie even made her way up to me, her hand quickly closing in on me to see if I was alright.
*Slap!*
"Stay away!"
"James...?"
I couldn't help it. If I actually felt the warmth of someone I wanted to call a friend now, I would surely break down. And that would mean I wouldn't be able to go forward anymore.
So, knowing this, I quickly brought out my defenses in the form of my mask and put it on.
Sure enough, as soon as the mask was planted on my face everything calmed down inside of me. As if it was a cage to put away Zero in the deepest part of our being.
Looking up to the sky, I felt the freedom that was ignorance. The freedom which was the distance from oneself. The freedom of being free from myself.
Turning my gaze down, I was met with the faces of three people who truly could never understand me.
The frightened Sebastian, the agitated Arthur, and the worried Sophie.
Though I had successfully repressed most of my emotions, there was still one left that wouldn't go away when I looked at them.
Envy.
Envy towards myself... No, envy towards Zero who got to get along with everyone, who got to experience the warmth that was other people. Envy because of the fact that James would never get the chance to feel it again.
Right now, I didn't even care about that stupid contract, nor did I care about the foolish spearman. So, I canceled his contract. Instantly, I could feel the bond between us disappear, notifying the fact that he was no longer under my control.
"Huh?! James, what did you do?!"
Noticing the same, Sebastian's face turned into complete disorder, unable to understand what I had just done. There was no doubt that he thought of me to be even more insane now. Granted, at this point, I wasn't sure if I was or not.
"Don't ask stupid questions. So, now you are free again. Isn't that great? Isn't it great that even though you acted like a complete moron you still have people by your side?"
Not getting the chance to answer me, Sophie stepped up once again, uttering similar words that another part of me had once stated.
"James! Please, just stop this! There has to be another way!"
At this point, her hardened face had been completely blown away, now replaced with pure worry for the one she had once regarded as her own security. The one she could rely on in this foreign world with extreme hardships.
However, I just turned around, knowing there was no point in standing still any longer.
"I hope you think about that contract, Arthur. Because without it, I can't promise you that any of you will survive."
*Poof!*
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